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US economic growth in middle of global pack

Updated at: 04/26/2013 3:36 PM
By The Associated Press

The U.S. economy’s slow but steady growth has fallen somewhere in the middle of the global pack. It’s managed to stay ahead of most other developed countries, many of which teetered on the edge of recession last year. But U.S. growth has lagged behind faster-growing emerging economies.

The Commerce Department said Friday that the economy expanded at a 2.5 percent annual rate from January to March, driven by the biggest gain in consumer spending in two years. That’s roughly in line with last year’s growth of 2.2 percent.

Here are the growth rates for the world’s 10 largest economies last year:

Country 2012 growth rate Explanation

United States 2.2 % Slow but steady growth, held back by gov’t spending cuts